


Gentle Sins

by forgottenSilence



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Catholic schoolstuck, Child Abuse, Forbidden Love, Homophobia, M/M, Schoolstuck, being said i'm gonna bump this to a few years in the past but not specific, just watch out okay know what you're getting into, like imagine the boarding schools for the indigenous people, like in the bad sense, really really traditional bad catholic boarding school, thats how i got the idea, thats romanticized right, theres a lot of bad things happening to these kids guys, traditional christianity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-03-09 20:42:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3263720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgottenSilence/pseuds/forgottenSilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat and Dave find each other in the kitchen of their boarding school. The devote the rest of their time together to getting each other kicked out and free from the teachings they hate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gentle Sins

The kitchen was cramped, air humid from the plethora of boiling pots on every stove top. The brick oven on the far end of the room let in a glow of heat that stuck in the air and latched onto any bit of skin not covered by clothes. The walls were a mucky yellow that was crisped around the appliance, and often matched the color of the food that was made for meals in a way that made you wonder if the walls were ever white or if the place was actually so ill-kept that there was a permanent stain from the sludge that would pass as food. There was no doubt that this place was entirely suitable for detention, even for someone who had to cook, clean, or bake nearly every night for the things he didn't even do. Which is exactly how Karkat finds himself in the sorry excuse for a kitchen, so sticky and hot even his thick skin can't block out how groggy the air is. 

He's in front of the stove, stirring the cream contents of the metallic pot in front of him. There's a nun behind him, some human kid to his right, a cook somewhere not in his immediate vicinity, and three empty carts to his left. Needless to say, it makes absolutely zero sense to him that the entirety of the kitchen feels like it absolutely needs to be surrounding him in such a way he probably couldn't even move around to pick up a fallen spoon or bowl without a combo-ed scolding: one for not being careful enough and making a mess, and two for being rude and bumping into others. The air of his environment leaves his eyes trained on his task and mind on nothing but what he needs it to be to keep his excessive flow of worrying from making his situation any less bearable than it already is by default. He takes a quick look over the cook book stationed on the counter next to him and then reaches to grab rosemary from the spice rack to his right.

The nun watching over him takes no time in giving Karkat's wrist a hard smack. "Boy, you know it's rude to reach over another person. Please, remember your manners, and try again." She's holding herself high, more invested in the power she has than really focused on bettering the children she watches. It adds to the frustration Karkat already has in this unforgivably stupid situation. 

That's when Karkat's presented with the spice in question from the human next to him. It softens his hard glare and leads his eyes across the others arm and to his face. "Dude, here you could've just asked. It ain't like I got this whole detention biz down like some-" He ends up retracting his hand with a hiss and dropping the spice when his wrist is smacked as well.

"No, don't baby the imbecile. He needs to learn to be polite and ask for what he wants instead of taking it like a savage. This is a lesson for Karkat."

Karkat's glare pulls right back into place, but he can't bring himself to really direct it at the nun, and instead just out to the open, yellowing space on the wall. "Oh, right, you want me to ask him for something without even knowing his name first so that you can hit me again for saying 'hey you' to get his attention." 

"Name's Dave." The human seems to rush out before anything else can escalate. "Nice to meet you, hope to see you at prayer, yadda yadda yadda. Now you can ask for your damn spice like the proper Christian boy daddy knows you are." There's the blunt force of a hard cover bible hitting the back of Dave's head for the curse. It makes Karkat cringe just to see, but Dave doesn't seem to do much but keep his eyes closed for it. Karkat gives him the liberty to at least straighten out before he asks for the spice. 

"...Dave, could you hand me the rosemary. Please." He keep the nun in his peripheral vision and holds one of his hands out to take the spice, silently handed to him. He spits out a thanks and goes to add teaspoons of it into the two pots in his control. 

"You're welcome. Anything else I can get for you to keep you from imposing on my personal bubble?" 

Karkat gives Dave a glance to see if he is trying to be helpful, or if Karkat should just stick to trying to cook everything by himself like he does most nights. "Yeah. If you could keep these two pots from boiling over, I need to check the others."

Dave pushes off of the counter he was leaning against and stands closer to the pots. "Alright, I can't do that." 

"Dave, if you dare let these boil over I'm going to sssss- we'll have to start over. Cooking. And it'll be a waste of food." 

The stammer in the middle catches Dave's attention, and he gives the troll a slight nod before taking the wooden spoon from him. "Don't worry dude, I kinda know how to cook. I mean ain't that much of a trick to it- not like cooking's the secret eighth wonder of the world. Guarded only by the fact that there's no security on it and is generally known by at least one member of every household. Some sort of full circle act where it's so unsecret that it becomes too hard to uncover. Like little kids never guessing that they've got santa right under their own roofs twenty-four-seven." 

Karkat would've asked Dave what the hell he was even talking about or how stupid he is, but the rant seemed to give the nun the perfect opportunity to leave the putrid heat of the kitchen. He gives the pots a few more stirs before going back to the ones he left Dave in charge in, casually stealing the spoon back into his own hand. 

Dave stays just as close to the pots as he was when he was stirring. "So what're you cooking exactly. Never got a VIP behind the scenes tour before, not used to seeing this shit without being all dolled up first, not ready for it's big appearance." 

Karkat sighs at how horrible the reference is. "Just the usual slob that we're served, except with actual flavor this time. Not like anyone else would ever even try to touch the spice rack." 

"I mean hey, why waste time of making shit we actually like. This place is basically a prison where caporal punishment is legal, no need to spend more time than necessary on us prisoners."

"That doesn't mean you can't use what's already right f-- here. Right in front of you." 

Dave gives a short glance up to the spice rack. "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it's just sitting here so if anyone asks they can be like 'yeah, look at all this good stuff for the assembly to have.' 'Oh, wow, is that oregano?' 'Only the best for our holy angels.'"

Karkat sighs at that and turns the heat on low, putting the lids on them. "You're all lucky that I'm here so often to bless your terribly bland school diet with my mediocre cooking skills that could probably kill someone if I didn't know better. You're fucking welcome, nookstains- guys. Fuck." 

"Damn, you've got such a wonderful vocabulary." Dave teases. It raises a red tint to Karkat's face along with a frown. "That why your ass is landed here all days of the week?"

"Sometimes. Yes. Not like you have any room to talk. You don't seem to care about 'wounding angels with the sins falling from your mouth' either."

"I mean hey, I'm already in detention what are they gonna do? Beat me around a little until I see how much God really loves me?"

The last part makes Karkat's stomach tilt, so he looks to the side. "What? Did you just have some ground breaking revelation that rules really don't matter? Realize how incredibly easy it is to open your fucking eyes and completely give up on all aspects of authority and rebel against the lord? Or are you new here?"

Dave gives a single breath of laugh at that. "No, I've been here for a while. Just never really bothered to get myself in trouble, thought I'd just breeze by untouched and get myself out on good behavior. Realized that's not gonna happen anytime soon, so I went all star wars rebellion on their ass, caught a teacher in the line of fire and wound up here."

Karkat's a little sour at how Dave laid his story out, but doesn't dwell on it. "Wait, what grade are you in?"

"Junior. Still got another year and a half here if I'm lucky. What about you?"

"Same. Not like they're ever going to let me out on time, though." 

"Why's that? Are you some major trouble maker, infamous to the entire faculty to jump on your ass as soon as there's an inkling of possible deception?"

"No, fuck you, I'm not doing anything wrong or bad. It's just really fucking difficult to remember all the lore of your stupid human religion so I'm failing Bible Studies. Again. Not like the book is even remotely interesting anyway."

"Hey, don't assume this is my religion. Just because I'm stuck here doesn't mean I follow any of the bullshit this school's about. Personally, I'd go for no religion. 'Course you would know more than anyone we can't always pick where we end up, just get swept along with everyone else."

Karkat honestly hadn't even considered the fact that Dave maybe, really didn't want to be here. From what he had heard, being at a boarding school was a rare privilege that the lower class humans could never get into. It's the first time he's heard of a human not wanting this. "What's making you stay?"

Dave shrugs at the question, panning his gaze to the side. "Foster family. They think it'll help me 'move on.' prepare me for 'a better life that I would have never gotten anywhere else.' Trying to get me to think of this hell hole as a blessing or some shit." 

Karkat's disgusted with the answer he's given, like that's even a possibility for Dave's situation. "Fuck them for thinking this is what's best for you if they think this pathetic excuse for a human boarding school does anything even remotely beneficial for anyone! Why don't they go here instead?" 

"They've got love for Jesus pouring out of their asses, obviously. They think finding religion is some sort of one-way ticket to opportunity and success. So instead of doing anything to actually help me in any way, they stuck me here. I mean you can just tell how much they care about me." 

"Yeah, sounds like the perfect human family right there, full of unconditional love and understanding. Sorry. That you had to get picked up by such shitty lusi- I mean parents." He scorns a little at his own slip up. 

"They're hardly even guardians, dude. I mean they sent me off here soon as I got to their doorstep and haven't seen me since. Send me guilt tripping letters twice a year to try and pull some sort of manipulating bullshit on me, but hell they didn't even pay to get me in here. Only part of that family that was worth the week I was there for was the dog." 

"They got you here without even paying? How the hell did that happen?" 

"Had some sort of deal with the foster system. Basically picked a place for me to stay and I got a full scholarship." 

"That's an incredibly stupid waste of your economy's money if you don't even want to be here. At least my dead-beat dad pays full tuition to keep me out of his hair for the rest of his life. Can you help me ladle this shit into bowls?" He takes the lids back off of the pots and wheels one cart full of empty bowls between the two of them. 

Dave nods and picks up one of the ladles. "Your dad's got you here just to keep you away?"

Karkat works quickly, already filling his third bowl. "Yeah. I mean, there's probably something about finding God or whatever too, but I doubt that's any key component to his decision to lock me away forever." 

"What, about him finding God or you finding God?" Dave looks at Karkat over the cart. 

"Me finding him. He thought that I needed it for some stupid reason that I don't even remember. But, considering the shit eating performance I put on whenever my pathetically slow mind sees the chance to, I'm pretty sure all the nuns agree." Karkat sighs at his own incompetence, snatching another bowl off of the cart.

"Hey, nobody can make you get down and dirty with God or Jesus. If you wanna rub yourself against some shitty scripture, go for it but if you don't it ain't nothing to get your black lace panties all twisted over. I mean, except for the fact that since we're not eighteen yet we apparently have no say in the matter." 

Dave pretty much hits the nail on the head. There's a break in the conversation afterward, filled only with the sound of the thick soup being poured. 

"Hey, do you think they'd kick us out if we just if we just started making out right here? Cause if that would get us out of this mess, I would totally be willing to try it." Dave offers, looking up with a hesitant hope to watch Karkat's reaction. 

Who thinks about it more a few seconds before basically throwing the idea out the window. "No. Not right away at least. I mean, I've done a lot of stupid shit that just gets me into the kind of trouble that they fix with punishment and a warning. We'd have to have more going on than feigning one of your stupid human "gay flings" to get kicked out of here." 

"Okay, how about feigning an entire goddamned relationship? Just like, a temporary partnership until they get sick of us. Hell, I'd like to see them try to 'beat the gay out of me.' They'd be in the hospitals with sever aneurisms before that shit works on me."

"Jesus Christ, are they seriously that stuck up about some stupid human classification that doesn't make sense to any imaginable stretch of the observable universe?" He stops filling bowl to invest more in the possible plan to ditch this place once and for all. 

"Dude, you can't even reach over me to get a fucking spice bottle. Pretty sure if we pitched any sort of homo activity it'd throw them off." Dave stops as well, leaning one hip against the counter. 

Karkat pauses thinks about the options. He knows about the human sexual-orientation classifications, and has heard about what God supposedly says about being a homosexual. Even if they did get away with making out for a while, he's positive there would be worlds of painful punishment along the way considering how bad it is for just cursing and being generally disrespectful. Whatever they had in store for this stunt was going to be undoubtably horrible. But if it'll get them out quickly, it'd definitely be worth it. "Okay. Good. Let's do it. Lets... be 'homo' or whatever. What wing is your dorm in?" 

"Seriously? That's all the convincing you need to agree to this bullshit? You must really want out of here, huh." He lets a slip of a smile by. "East wing."

"I've been here for three years. I'd be willing to sell major organs if it meant getting out of this fucked up oink-beast-- pig sty. And I'm on the South side. Second floor." He lets out a light breath, excited and anxious for the plan. "We can hang out after the two mandatory hours for homework today. And everyday. Do we have any classes together? What lunch do you have-- We can sit together during mass." He slides one foot closer, although still separated by the food cart. Dave squares up to him, sliding his hands into his back pockets.

"I'll dig out my schedule after homework hours and we can get that shit worked out. And I mean, I've seen you around. We at least have a portion of our schedule together."

"Good. We can talk then. About what to do and when to do it to piss them all off the most. Fuck, I can't believe we might actually get out of here..." He breathes out a smile and puts both of his hands on the edge of the cart to ground himself and keep from floating away into the daydream they created. 

"I sure as hell hope so. Fuck, imagine if that nun heard us talking right now." Dave absent-mindedly takes a glance to the door which pulls Karkat's attention that way for a brief moment as well. 

"God, if she heard any of this we'd be spanked until we could shit for weeks. Or worse." He picks up the few bowls he had left on the counter and puts them back onto the cart. Dave takes the one he had and loads it back on. 

"Hey, if it gets me out of here, I wouldn't care if my ass falls off and I'm left to put padding down my pants just so that they'll fit. Is that all we have to do?" He nods to the cart.

Karkat looks at the bowls and nods back. "Yeah. The adults will come back later to wheel them out and feed the rest of the assembly. We on the other hand will be left to eat sitting on the floor here like bark-beasts for whatever reason they think justifies it." 

"Fuck seriously? We can't eat out there with everyone else? That's actually incredibly stupid."

"Yeah, no shit. They watch to make sure we pray over it and everything too." Karkat rolls his eyes at how stupid the thought is.

"Oh my God, I hate this place. If there is any lord, please strike me dead now." Dave pleas dramatically, casting his eyes up. 

"Right, because if there was any lord, he wouldn't have already taken enough pity on you to do it already." 

Just then, there's the heavy clicking of footsteps outside of the kitchen, snapping both Karkat and Dave's attention to the doorway. Karkat stands with perfect posture, his stomach fluttering and tensing with worry. "Should we kiss now? Or after dinner?"

Dave doesn't take his eyes off the door, his relaxed state just about the opposite of Karkat's. "I mean, do you wanna kiss right now? I sure as hell ain't opposed to getting rebellious just about now." 

"Fuck. Yes." Karkat gives a kick lick over his bottom lip before leaning over the food Karkat and putting a hand on Dave's shoulder. His stomach is a mix of too many emotions all at once, the footsteps were getting closer and closer and his thoughts just kept racing around the thoughts that Dave might try to back out, or harass Karkat for even doing something like this, or that the punishment that they would get for this would be too extreme to handle or fall sort of having leaving be a reasonable reward for going through it. 

Dave simply slides his hand onto Karkat's cheek, and pushes his lips against Karkat's gently enough that he could feel the plush flesh of them. It does a good deal to quell the anxiety in Karkat, but not enough to keep it down completely. He slings his arm around Dave's neck as the footsteps get closer, and closer, trying to hold onto the good thing about this moment. Because kissing Dave, although mixed with his offensive thoughts, was still really fucking great. Of course he can't enjoy it long before there's a nearly screaming nun in the doorway. 

Dave breaks the kiss first with a smile, pulling back enough to look into Karkat's eyes. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking? We're trying to have a moment here." Karkat looks over at the nun with a look of impatience to help play along. A few other adults come rushing into the room to comfort Sister Emily which just put Karkat on edge more. He tightens his hand on Dave which seems to give the message of wanting another kiss, because Dave's putting another caste kiss against Karkat's mouth before he knows it. 

He immediately tilts to get a better angle, and pushes deeper into the kiss. Several gasps come from the doorway that both Dave and Karkat try to ignore before there are two distinct pairs of footsteps rushing toward them. Karkat throws in one last effort to hold on tight to Dave as the latter did the same, sliding his hand around to grip around Karkat's neck to keep him closer. Of course it holds nothing against the jerking pulls each boy receives.

Both of them try their best to fight out of the grasps of their respective teachers who were already starting to mutter bible scripts. It isn't long before Karkat looses sight of Dave, and instead is forced to stare at the counter top with a hand on his neck to keep him bent over and looking down. The first blunt echo of force comes from Karkat, followed by a short gasp a curse from the pain. Dave's first hit comes almost right after Karkat's second, both nuns murmuring over each other.

The hits consistently range from their upper thighs, all the way to their lower backs. The bulk, of course, stay squarely on their asses, reassurance that God loves them and will forgive them providing background noise the entire time. 

The punishment goes for ten minutes before Karkat and Dave are both sent to their rooms without dinner. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter of my first real fic? Hurray for kitchens. If you have any comments or criticism, please don't be afraid to say them. 
> 
> -Allen


End file.
